Death penalty sought for soldier in Afghanistan massacre

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. -- Army prosecutors yesterday asked an investigative officer to recommend a death penalty court-martial for a staff sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in a predawn rampage, saying that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales committed "heinous and despicable crimes."

Prosecutors made their closing arguments after a week of testimony in the preliminary hearing. Prosecutors say Bales, 39, slipped away from his remote base at Camp Belambay in southern Afghanistan to attack two villages early on March 11. Among the dead were nine children.

Defense attorney Emma Scanlan said that it's still unknown what Bales' state of mind was the evening of the killings.

An Army criminal investigations command special agent had testified last week that Bales tested positive for steroids three days after the killings, and other soldiers testified that Bales had been drinking the evening of the massacre.

"We've heard that Sgt. Bales was lucid, coherent and responsive," Scanlan said in her closing argument. "We don't know what it means to be on alcohol, steroids and sleeping aids."

The investigating officer said yesterday that he would have a written recommendation by the end of the week. The military hasn't executed a service member since 1961.